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Part 1: Comparative History
 Generally Intel has been the dominant producer
of microprocessor chips
 AMD has proven to be a fierce competitor
 Competition stimulated the industry by producing new and
innovative microprocessors
 In the mid nineties Intel begins to face true competition
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Comparative History – 80286 chip
 1980’s-Intel was the only true producer of marketable
computer chips
 1982-introduce 80286
 286 was able to run software of its prior microprocessor
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Comparative History – 80286 chip
 Within 6 years, 15 million 286’s are installed around
the world
 Intel contracts third party companies to produce 286’s
and variants
 AMD was one of these third party companies
 AMD became very efficient and capable of being its
own producer of microprocessors
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Comparative History – 386 chip
 1985, Intel releases its 32-bit 386 microprocessor.
 Faster and capable of multitasking
 AMD, under licensed production, produces 386 chips
allowing Intel to meet market demands
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Comparative History – 386 chip
 During the reign of the 386, AMD decides to produce
its own CPU.
 1987-AMD began legal arbitration over rights to
produce their own chips.
 After 5 years of battle, the courts sided with AMD.
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Comparative History -486 chip
 1989-Intel releases its 486DX.
 Allowed point and clicking
 Initially twice as fast as its predecessor.
 Intel continued to upgrade to speeds reaching 66MHz.
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Comparative History -Am386 chip
 1991-AMD released Am386
 Intel’s 486 released two years prior
 AMD believed there still existed a market
 By October, AMD sold one million units
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Comparative History -Am486 chip
 1993-AMD releases first competing chip: Am486
 1994-AMD improves chip with Am486DX
 Am486DX processes up to 100MHz
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Comparative History - Pentium
 1993, Intel realizes it cannot trademark numbers “x86.”
 This allows AMD the ability to essentially clone Intel’s
chips
 Intel’s solution: dubs its new chip the Pentium instead of
releasing it as the “586”
Comparative History - Pentium
 Handles and processes more media types such as speech,
sound , and photographic images.
 It Offered multiple processing speeds up to 200MHz.
 It became well entrenched in the market
 During this time, Intel truly dominated
Comparative History - Am5x86
 1995- AMD’s first attempt to compete with the Pentium
by introducing Am5x86
 It was really for those who wanted to upgrade their 486
motherboards without making a jump to the Pentium
motherboard
 AMD did not fare well with this chip
Comparative History - AMD K5
 1996-K5 introduced
 First chip comparable to the Pentium
 Could be placed in the same motherboard as the Pentium,
making it compatible
 Because it was released 3 years after the Pentium, it was met
with cool reception
Comparative History – Pentium Pro
 In the previous year, Intel released the Pentium Pro
 Able to handle more instructions per clock cycle
 Intel’s ability to get a new chip on the market before
AMD has had the effect of overshadowing any of
AMD’s microprocessors
Comparative History - AMD K6
 1996-AMD purchases the company NexGen who were
making a microprocessor of their own
 AMD uses their core 686 processor to develop the AMD
K6
 Additionally, they slap on Intel’s MMX code making it
compatible with Pentiums.
Comparative History - AMD K6
 K6 was released in 1997 and reached speeds of 166Mhz to
200Mhz
 K6 was significantly cheaper than the Pentium
 K6 was able to move up to speeds as high as 300MHz, out
performing the Pentiums
 Intel was ready for the challenge
Comparative History - Pentium II
 Later than year, Intel unveils the Pentium II
 It was equipped with MMX instructions, ready to handle
video, audio, and graphics data
 Better capable of handling video editing, sending media via
the Internet, and reprocessing music
 By 1998, the Pentium began to climb in processing speeds
up to 450 MHz.
Comparative History - The Celeron
 K6 was doing well as a cost effective alternative to the
Pentium II, although it was an inferior chip
 In response, in 1998, Intel introduced its own cheaper and
inferiror microprocessor: the Celeron
 It was a stripped down version of the Pentium II
Comparative History - AMD’s K6-2
 AMD fights back with an enhanced K6 to take on the Pentium II:
the K6-2
 Their K6 chip included what they called “3DNow” technology
 3DNow is an additional twenty-two instructions to better handle
audio, video, and graphic intensive programs
 AMD then releases K6-3 and proves to be a threat to Intel
Comparative History - Pentium III
 1999-Intel responds by coming out with the Pentium III
 It had an additional 70 instructions, improving its ability
to process advanced imaging, streaming audio, video, &
speech recognition programs
 One goal of the Pentium III was to enhance the Internet
experience
Comparative History - the Athlon
 The Athlon was a new chip from the ground up
 It was capable of doing everything the Pentium III
could do, but was much cheaper
 The Athlon was beating out the Pentium III
Comparative History - Celeron II
 In 2000, Intel decides to launch a two pronged attack
against AMD
 First, Intel fights for low-end market by introducing
the Celeron II
 It ranges in speed between 500 and 1100MHz.
 It was a stripped down processor with enhanced speed
 It was fairly cheap, making it competitive
Comparative History -Pentium IV
 Intel also introduces the Pentium IV
 It uses four main new technologies: Hyper Pipelined
Technology, Rapid Execution Engine, Execution
Trace Cache and a 400 MHz system bus
 Its major improvement was increased speed, initially
starting at 1.5Ghz with ability for expansion
 Today it’s reaching upwards to a remarkable 3GHz
Comparative History - Pentium IV
 The Pentium IV can now produce high quality video
 stream radio and TV quality information across the
internet
 Render upscale graphics in real-time
 Perform several applications simultaneously while
connected to the Internet
Comparative History - the Duron
 As result of Intel’s attack on AMD, Intel is once again
dominating the market
 AMD’s response to the Celeron II was the Duron,
released the same year (2000)
 It is a geared down version of the Athlon, but edges
out the Celeron
Comparative History - Athlon XP
 The Athlon chip was destroying the Pentium III, but now
is destined for the graveyard
 In response to the Pentium IV, AMD enhanced the Athlon
by coming out with the XP series.
 Test show that an Athlon XP running 1.4GHz performs
nearly as well as a Pentium of 2Ghz
 The Athlon XP is a quality chip, but is fading away under
the onslaught of the heavy performance of the Pentium IV
Comparative History–the ClawHammer
 Intel now holds edge over AMD in chip technology
 Rumored that AMD is developing a powerhouse
chip called the ClawHammer
 It is apparently in a testing stage
Chipsets
 Our goal has been to understand the history and details
of the competition and their processors between Intel
and AMD
 Also of importance are Chipsets
 Knowing some information on chipsets helps determine
an appropriate opinion on Intel & AMD
Chipsets
 A chipset is a group of integrated circuits, sold as one
unit, designed to perform one or more related functions
 We are focused on chipsets that provide functionality for
the CPU
 We compared chipsets from both AMD and Intel as well
as an outside manufacturer, who makes chipsets for
both, VIA.
 Most advanced chipset for the AMD CPU
 Consists of the VT8235 Southbridge and the
VT8377 Northbridge.
Main Features of KT400
 Front Side Bus (FSB) up to 333Mhz
 Support for PC 3200 DDR Ram memory @ 400 Mhz
 North-South Bridge Link @ 533 Mhz
 5 available PCI slots
KT400 VT8377 Features
 Lightening fast memory
access: 2.7 Gb/s
 AGP @ 8X offers 2.1 Gb/s
dedicated speed to 3D
graphics
 Fast 333 Mhz FSB
KT400 VT8235 Features
 533 Mhz 8X V-link
interface between North
and South bridge
 USB 2.0
 ATA133
 6 Channel Audio
Using Soyo’s KT400 Ultra Dragon Motherboard
Higher number better
Higher
number
better
Higher number better
AMD 760 MPX Chipset
(Dual Processor)
 Consists of the AMD-762 system controller
(northbridge) and the AMD-768 peripheral bus
controller (southbridge).
Main features of AMD 760MPX
 Front Side Bus (FSB) up to 266 Mhz per processor
(533Mhz)
 Support for PC 2100 DDR Ram memory @ 266 Mhz
 North-South Bridge Link @ 66 Mhz
 Up to 7 available PCI slots
Features of AMD 760MPX 762
System Controller

Two 266 MHz pointto-point AMD system
buses

PC 2100 DDR Ram
memory @ 266 Mhz

AGP 4X video card
support
Features of AMD 760MPX 768
Peripheral Bus Controller
 Host PCI bus utilizing a
66MHz/64-bit interface.
Secondary 33MHz/32-bit PCI
bus interface, including PCI bus
arbiter with support for up to
eight external devices
 UDMA 33/66/100 compatible
EIDE bus master controller
 SMBus controller with one
SMBus port
Advantages of the AIPC and the
SMBus Bus
 Through the AIPC bus, the Processors have direct
access to the south bridge
 Through the SMBus, the memory has the direct access
to the south bridge
 Disadvantage of direct access can be potential data
conflict
Structure
 Designed for Xeon Processor
 2 Main Chips
 MCH Memory Controller Hub
 Controls the high speed bus
 ICH2 I/O controller Hub
 Controls the peripheral devices
Over view of 860 chipset
High Speed Bus
 Memory
 64 Bit PCI connection
 Graphics Accelerators
Memory Configuration
 RDRAM
 Up to 64 devices supported by the Paired mode
 Single Channel-pair Mode
 Utilizes memory modules ( 4 Gigabytes)
 Multiple Channel- pair mode
 Utilizes MRH-R to control the expanded capabilities (
16 Gigabytes of RAM)
Block Diagram
64 bit PCI Support
 400 MHz connection to the P64H chip
 Allows for a fast connection to a high speed, PCI
device
 High data transfer rate
 High Speed
 A pair are bundled in the chipset
Graphics Accelerator
 MCH connects to AGP 4X
 Connection speed of 1 GB/s
 High performance Accelerators supported
 Does not Support 8X Accelerators
ICH2 Peripherals Bus
 32 Bit PCI Bus
 LAN Controller
 I/O module
 Keyboard, Mouse, Floppy disk drive, etc
 ATA / 100 (IDE standard for Hard Drive)
 4 USB Ports
Features and Benefits
Feature
Supports two Intel Xeon Processors with
Benefit
NetBurst Microarchitecture and hyper-Threading
teconlogy
512 KB L2 chacke for dual-processing server platforms
400 MHz System Bus Capability
Balances the system bus band withd with the memory
Intel Hub Architecture with option P64H
Dual 64-bit 66 MHz I/O segments for fast drive access
and high speed networks
AGP 4X
1 GB/s of Graphics bandwidth allows high performance
Graphics
MRH-R (RDRAM Based repeater Hub)
Extends RDRAM memory capacities and increases
System scalability
Maximum memory performance(3.2 GB/s or 400MHz)
Dual RDRAM channels
Prefetch Cache
System concurrency so that simultaneous process
do not impact system performance
Dual USB Controllers
Enhanced plug and play with four full band width
USB ports
Note source (Intel 860 Chipset)
Overview 860 chipset
 Highly Structured
 Powered by up to 7 chips
 High performance
Apollo Chipset
 Designed for the Pentium 4 processor
 3 Segments in the Bus
 North Bridge High speed bus
 South Bridge peripheral devices
Block Diagram
North Bridge
 System Bus
 400 MHz
 Main memory
 Connection at 266 MHz
 Bottleneck
 Accelerated Graphics Controller AGP
 4X AGP support
South Bridge
 Controls 32 bit PCI Bus (33 MHz)
 Supports up to 6 USB devices
 (2.0 Standard)
 Hard Drive
 IDE (ATA 33 / 66 / 100 )
 LAN controller VT6103
South Bridge (cont’d)
 Several chips available
 VT8233
 VT8233C
 VT8233A
 Each with a unique function
 Price drops
Features
 Supports Intel Pentium 4 Processor
 400MHz (Quad 100) FSB setting
 AGP4X graphics
 Supports DDR200/266 SDRAM as well as
PC100/133
SDRAM
 Ultra fast 266MB per second V-Link between North
and South Bridge
Features (cont’d)
 AC'97 and MC'97 Audio/Modem
 Integrated 3Com 10/100Mb Ethernet Media Access
Controller
 Support for 2 ATA 33/66/100 interfaces
 6 USB ports, UHCI compliant
 Advanced power management capabilities
 Note Source: (Via P4X266)
Overview
 Highly structured
 Unique features
 LAN, sound, modem integrated
 4 GB of Ram
 Promises to utilize Intel’s Quad bus pumping
technology
 Price conscientious
Thank You